She Said Yes! Theatre

Mandate

She Said Yes! is an unincorporated, non-profit, artist-driven feminist theatre company based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It was founded by principal artist and artistic director Sara Tilley in 2002.

She Said Yes! is dedicated to the development of feminist theatre in Newfoundland and Labrador through:

Development and production of new work which enriches the canon of female characters

Production of existing plays which challenge female artists

Development of new approaches to theatremaking by female artists

Co-production and collaboration with other theatre companies with a similar interest in feminist or developmental theatre

She Said Yes! is dedicated to continued experimentation in creating work which utilizes a myriad of physical forms, such as Pochinko clown and maskmaking technique, neutral mask, bouffon, Laban, Butoh and Viewpoints work as well as naturalistic acting technique in constantly changing amalgamations, in order to go after the essence of each project which is undertaken. She Said Yes! endeavours to push the artistic boundaries of its artists by introducing challenging, well-developed scripts, new methods of creation and new acting techniques to the creative community of St. John’s. Through developmental programming such as the Mail-Order Dramaturgy program and the Women’s Work Festival, we also aim to provide a secure and open environment for female playwrights to hone and perfect their works in progress.

She Said Yes! does much of its work in collaboration with other theatre companies. Past and current collaborators include RCA Theatre Company, White Rooster Theatre, Playwright’s Workshop Montreal and Redwatch Theatre.

Artistic Director

Sara Tilley's artistic work bridges writing, theatre, and Clown Through Mask technique, with each discipline informing and inspiring the others. After graduating with a BFA in Acting from York University, she founded She Said Yes! in 2002, and received the Rhonda Payne Theatre Award in 2006, which acknowledges the contribution of a woman working in theatre in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Sara’s writing spans the genres of playwriting, prose and poetry. She has written, co-written or co-created over ten plays to date, all of which have received professional production. Skin Room, her first novel (Pedlar Press, 2008), won both the 2004 Newfoundland and Labrador Percy Janes First Novel Award and the inaugural Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers in 2006, and was shortlisted for the Winterset Award and the Thomas Raddall Award for Atlantic Fiction.

In 2008, Sara studied Clown Through Mask co-founder, Ian Wallace and now teaches this method.